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Gears of War: E-Day respects lore from tie-in novels because "retconning sucks" and "we give a s**t"

Validation for fans who read the books!

A screenshot from Gears of War: E-Day, showing Markus in a bar holding up a beer for a toast.

The Coalition

Published: Wednesday, 10 June 2026 at 4:00 pm

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We got the chance to share some time with the developers of Gears of War: E-Day after their big reveals at the Xbox Games Showcase.

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As they talked us through their latest trailers and shared some insight into the making of the game, it became clear that a lot of passion has gone into telling this early Gears of War story.

E-Day, if you’re unfamiliar with the lore, is Emergence Day. A dark chapter in the history of Gears lore - where all hell broke loose in the city of Kalona, with a huge invasion causing a massive loss of human life - which took place before the events of the original trilogy of Gears games.

Delving this far back into their own lore meant that the developers of the game had to contend with some other material - there are tie-in novels that have already told various stories around this moment in the franchise’s shared history.

What became clear during our session is that the developers wanted to honour those books, even going so far as to take lines, scenes and characters directly from those written materials and plonk them into the game.

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We had to ask - what inspired this way of thinking, especially when it would have been easier just to forget the books and tell the story however they want?

The Coalition's studio brand director, Nicole Fawcette, put it simply when she said that "retconning sucks".

She added that the team felt it was "important to honour those writers" and the fans who have made an investment in time and money to read those books.

She also said, in no uncertain terms, that this approach was taken because "we give a s**t" - the lore is the lore, the fans have made the effort to learn it, and they don’t want to change it unless it’s really necessary.

One example of something they had to find a workaround for is the fact that they needed to have a Chainsaw Lancer in the game - indeed, it wouldn’t be a Gears game without that iconic chainsaw gun - but it won’t be invented until a year later, going by the existing lore.

Their solution? To have the characters in the game jerry-rig a prototype Chainsaw Lancer. Not an official one, not the final product that hasn’t been invented yet, but something that will get the job done and allow fans to keep their trusty weapon in play.

Examples of things they’ve kept include a scene in a grocery store where a Retrolancer fails for the first time, with lines even being directly lifted from the book version of this moment.

Backstory comes from the books, too, with the death of Carlos Santiago in the Pendulum Wars looming over Marcus and Dom at the start of the game.

Author Karen Traviss was given a few shoutouts during this meeting, with her book Aspho Fields being credited with that piece of backstory in particular. She was also spoken to by the developers, during production of the game, we’re told.

So, if you’re a fan of the Gears books, you don’t have to worry - the developers are clearly holding them in a place of reverence and aiming to make a game that works for everyone as they bring the horrors of E-Day to life.

Read more on upcoming games:

Gears of War: E-Day launches on Xbox Series X/S and PC on 6 October 2026, a multiplayer beta kicking off on 6 August.

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Authors

Black and white cut-out portrait headshot of Rob Leane, smiling against a lime green background.

Rob LeaneGaming Editor

Rob Leane is the Gaming Editor at Radio Times, overseeing our coverage of the biggest games on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, mobile and VR. Rob works across our website, social media accounts and video channels, as well as producing our weekly gaming newsletter. He has previously worked at Den of Geek, Stealth Optional and Dennis Publishing.

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